Tag: Trump corruption

Federal agency ‘improperly’ ignored constitutional concerns before allowing Trump to keep lease to his hotel, internal watchdog says

The Trump International Hotel in Washington last month. Credit: Ricky Carioti, The Washington Post

The General Services Administration “ignored” concerns that President Trump’s lease on a government-owned building — the one that houses his Trump International Hotel in Washington — might violate the Constitution when it allowed Trump to keep the lease after he took office, according to a new report from the agency’s inspector general.

Trump’s company won the lease several years before he became president. After Trump was elected, the agency had to decide whether his company would be allowed to keep its lease.

At that time, the inspector general found, the agency should have determined whether the lease violates the Constitution’s emoluments clauses, which bar presidents from taking payments from foreign governments or individual U.S. states. But it did not, according to the report issued Wednesday.

View the complete January 16 article by Jonathan O’Connell and David A. Fahrenthold on The Washington Post website here.

T-Mobile announced a merger needing Trump administration approval. The next day, 9 executives had reservations at Trump’s hotel.

John Legere, chief executive of T-Mobile, arrives at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on the impact of the T-Mobile and Sprint merger on June 27. Credit: Andrew Harrer, Bloomberg News

Last April, telecom giant T-Mobile announced a megadeal: a $26 billion merger with rival Sprint, which would more than double T-Mobile’s value and give it a huge new chunk of the cellphone market.

But for T-Mobile, one hurdle remained: Its deal needed approval from the Trump administration.

The next day, in Washington, staffers at the Trump International Hotel were handed a list of incoming “VIP Arrivals.” That day’s list included nine of T-Mobile’s top executives — including its chief operating officer, chief technology officer, chief strategy officer and chief financial officer, and its outspoken celebrity chief executive, John Legere.

View the complete January 16 article by Jonathan O’Connell and David Fahrenthold on The Washington Post website here.

A Tale of Two Foundations

Credit: Patrick Semansky/Associated Press

Nobody ought to be surprised to hear of the belated demise of the Donald J. Trump Foundation, a racketeering enterprise under investigation by the state authorities in New York for the past two years. Barbara Underwood, the state attorney general, announced that the foundation will dissolve and its assets distributed to bona fide charitable groups. She seeks to prohibit its overseers, President Trump and his adult children, from serving on the board of any nonprofit in New York for the foreseeable future.

Raking through the foundation’s records since 2016, Underwood found what she described as “a shocking pattern of illegality,” which included not only various self-serving schemes to bolster Trump businesses and stroke Trump’s ego but also multiple (and unlawful) expenditures to advance his presidential campaign. The largest donation went to restore a fountain outside the Plaza Hotel in New York when Trump owned it. The smallest went to the Boy Scouts and appeared to be Donald Trump Jr.’s enrollment fee.

Trump misused the assets of one scam, the Trump Foundation, to protect another, Trump University. He sent a $25,000 foundation check to Florida Attorney General Pamela Bondi — an illegal donation — around the time she was considering whether to open a fraud probe into his fake educational institution. He raised millions for a veterans charity and then let Corey Lewandowksi direct the distribution of those funds in Iowa on the eve of the 2016 Republican caucuses. That violated the law, too.

View the complete December 19 article by Joe Conason on the Creators.com website here.

Culture Of Corruption: Nearly Every Trump Entity Is Under Investigation

Trump brings a culture of corruption everywhere he goes. Nearly every organization he has led in the past decade is now under investigation or scrutiny. Here are some of the latest developments:

Trump was forced to shut down his foundation, which remains under investigation for illegal self-dealing and being used for political gain.

New York Times: “The Donald J. Trump Foundation will close and give away all its remaining funds amid a lawsuit accusing the charity and the Trump family of using it illegally for self-dealing and political gain, the New York attorney general’s office announced Tuesday.”

Trump’s inaugural committee is under investigation into whether it misspent donations and accepted illegal contributions.

Wall Street Journal: “Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating whether President Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee misspent some of the record $107 million it raised from donations, people familiar with the matter said.” Continue reading “Culture Of Corruption: Nearly Every Trump Entity Is Under Investigation”

Trump’s Inauguration Paid Trump’s Company — With Ivanka in the Middle

The Trump International Hotel, Washington, DC. Credit: Win McNamee, Getty Images

As the inaugural committee planned the landmark celebration, internal concerns were raised about whether Trump’s Washington hotel was overcharging for event space. The spending could be a violation of the law.

When it came out this year that President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee raised and spent unprecedented amounts, people wondered where all that money went.

It turns out one beneficiary was Trump himself.

The inauguration paid the Trump Organization for rooms, meals and event space at the company’s Washington hotel, according to interviews as well as internal emails and receipts reviewed by WNYC and ProPublica.

View the complete December 14 article by Ilya Marritz with WNYC and Justin Elliott with ProPublica on the ProPublica website here.

Ivanka, Kushner could profit from tax break they pushed

Credit: Twitter

An Associated Press investigation finds President Donald Trump’s daughter and son-in law could benefit from a tax program they pushed

WASHINGTON (AP) — At an Oval Office gathering earlier this year, President Donald Trump began touting his administration’s new real estate investment program, which offers massive tax breaks to developers who invest in downtrodden American communities. He then turned to one of the plan’s strongest supporters.

“Ivanka, would you like to say something?” Trump asked his daughter. “You’ve been pushing this very hard.”

The Opportunity Zone program promoted by Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner — both senior White House advisers — could also benefit them financially, an Associated Press investigation found.

View the complete December 11 article by Stephen Braun, Jeff Horwitz and Bernard Condon on the Associated Press website here.

 

Pump and Trump

Donald Trump claims he only licensed his name for real estate projects developed by others. But an investigation of a dozen Trump deals shows deep family involvement in projects that often involved deceptive practices.

Since Donald Trump’s fortunes came surging back with the success of “The Apprentice” 14 years ago, his deals have often been scrutinized for the large number of his partners who have ventured to the very edges of the law, and sometimes beyond. Those associates have included accused money launderers, alleged funders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and a felon who slashed someone in the face with a broken margarita glass.

Trump and his company have typically countered by saying they were merely licensing his name on these real estate projects in exchange for a fee. They weren’t the developers or in any way responsible.

But an eight-month investigation by ProPublica and WNYC reveals that the post-millennium Trump business model is different from what has been previously reported. The Trumps were typically way more than mere licensors or bystanders in their often-troubled deals. They were deeply involved in these projects. They helped mislead investors and buyers — and they profited handsomely from it.

View the complete October 17 article by Heaather Vogell, ProPublica, with Andrea Bernstein and Meg Cramer, WNYC,and Peter Elkind, ProPublca on hte ProPublica website here. (This story was co-published with WNYC.)

Scott Pruitt, Former E.P.A. Chief, Is in Talks for His Next Job: Coal Consultant Image

Credit: Kaster, AP Photo

WASHINGTON — Scott Pruitt, the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency who championed deregulation of the fossil fuel industry, is in discussions to work as a consultant to the Kentucky coal mining tycoon Joseph W. Craft III.

Mr. Pruitt has remained largely out of the public eye since parting ways with the Trump administration in July under a cloud of ethics investigations into matters including his ties to fossil fuel industry executives with business before the agency.

Mr. Craft, the chief executive of Alliance Resource Partners and a major Republican donor, enjoyed a close relationship with the E.P.A. during Mr. Pruitt’s tenure. Mr. Craft met with Mr. Pruitt at least seven times in Mr. Pruitt’s first 14 months at the agency and in December provided him with courtside seats at a University of Kentucky basketball game, a school where Mr. Craft is a prominent supporter.

View the complete September 12, 2018, article by Lisa Friedman, Kiroko Tabuchi and Eric Lipton on the New York Times website.

Trump gang’s criminal rap sheet: 20 guilty pleas and convictions … so far

The following article by Caroline Orr was posted on the ShareBlue.com website August 24, 2018:

Here’s a look at the charges, guilty pleas, and convictions piling up all around Trump.

Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was found guiltyon eight federal charges Tuesday, just an hour before Trump’s longtime lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to eight counts, including illegally paying hush money for the purpose of helping Trump win the election.

With previous guilty pleas from Rick Gates (2 counts), George Papadopoulus (1 count), and Mike Flynn (1 count), that brings the total number of Trump associates who have pleaded guilty to or been convicted of criminal charges in the Russia probe to five, and the total count of criminal charges on their rap sheet to 20.

While Trump and his legal team tried to make the best of the situation this week, the only defense Rudy Giuliani could come up with was that Trump himself has not been indicted (yet), though legal experts say the charges against Cohen make Trump an unindicted co-conspirator in the illicit payment scheme.

View the complete article here.

‘The Swampiest Swamp In The History Of The Swamp’

Trump once said that he “could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it.” That’s one promise he kept. It is also one of the many reasons why Trump’s swamp is “the swampiest swamp in the history of the swamp.” Here’s the latest:

Since January 2017, Republican campaigns and political groups have spent more than $3.5 million at Trump’s properties.

McClatchy: “In 2014, Political Spending At Trump Properties Was $35K. In 2018, It’s $3.5M” Continue reading “‘The Swampiest Swamp In The History Of The Swamp’”